Lines in the Sand
by dqgilly
Summary: Rose Weasley's been dreaming of going to Hogwarts for as long as she could remember. Unfortunately (or is it?), it seems nothing is going the way she imagined it-and it doesn't look like that's going to change any time soon. Nextgen, rating/ships will develop as the story goes on.
1. Chapter 1

For the first time in my life, I, Rose Weasley, am scared.

As a child, I was always fearless. I would chase gnomes in our back garden, steal my mom's wand to practise spells (I swear, I wasn't aiming for the cat!), and even play Quidditch with my older cousins—that last one in particular really should have been a death wish. Of course, those were the kiddy things I did when I was little; I'm eleven now, old enough for Hogwarts. Hardly a kid anymore, yeah?

Anyways, no matter what the situation was, I've never been nervous or anxious or frightened, up until now, this very moment.

Even this morning, I'd been fine. My bags were all packed weeks ago; my mum insisted that prices were lower before the back-to-school season started, so we'd gone months earlier than the rest of the world. Dad said it was stupid, but she never really listens to him anyways. I had my wand all sorted; thirteen and a half inches, yew, unicorn hair core—same core as my dad. I had my robes, and I thought they were a little too long, but mom said I was probably going to grow. She knows everything, so I figured I might as well just deal with tripping over my robes for now. So I'd had my bags all sorted, ate a good breakfast—I had to give Hugo the prize in the cereal—and all there was left to do was meet up with the rest of the family at King's Cross and go to Hogwarts.

My first year. Not scary, not in the slightest, not at all. The second we'd crossed over to the platform, and I could already hear, see, and in James's case, smell our family. The Weasley-Potter clan is so large, the Hogwarts send offs have come to be something of an event. The only two of us starting school this year, though, are my cousin Albus and me.

Mum and Dad were more nervous than I was—not to say that I was nervous, of course. It was just that I felt a bit smothered, what with them hugging me and kissing me and telling me to beat some spider boy at all the tests before rushing onto the train with Albus.

So now I'm sitting here, across from my cousin in an otherwise empty compartment, and I'm scared. If it were James or Fred or anybody else, really, I would have kept my big mouth shut, but I'd always been decently close with Albus. I'd talk him into gnome-chasing with me, he would help me come up with plans to snatch Mum's wand, and I would try not to laugh too hard when he fell off his broom. After spending all that time with somebody, it gets a bit easier to make confessions.

"So…are you nervous?" I ask, pulling on one of my curls and biting my lip. After all, I only said a _bit_ easier—not easy enough to just outright _tell_ him I'm nervous. How lame would that be?

"Kind of," Albus answers, and I notice that his knee is bouncing up and down like crazy. "You?"

"Not really." Maybe it's a little bit of a lie, but who cares? I wasn't even really all that nervous.

"Oh." My cousin looks down, and his hair falls over his face as it always does. Dad says that Aunty Ginny lets him keep it too long, and though my mum's too polite to say it, she thinks the same thing. I knew, though, that she kept it that long on purpose—one night she'd jokingly confessed to me that he reminded her of Uncle Harry that way. That didn't make much sense to me; Uncle Harry has to keep his hair short as an Auror. Maybe it's because with his forehead all covered, you can't see that Albus didn't have the funny lightning bolt scar.

The only scar that Albus had is one straight across his nose, from the time James smashed his face with a toy broomstick.

"I mean, I'm a _teensy_ bit worried, I guess, but that's to be expected, yeah? There's all this worry about what houses we're gonna get and what the other kids in our year'll be like and all this pressure from our mum being so bloody brilliant in school and everybody expecting us to be just as bright-"

"No offense, Rosie, but your mum isn't mine." Albus smiles, and I have the sudden urge to punch him. I send a solid glare his way instead. "Hey, that doesn't mean I have it easy! Mine used to play for the Holyhead Harpies, and I'm rubbish at Quidditch."

"Whatever," I say, rolling my eyes. "What house d'you think you'll get?"

"Probably Gryffindor," Albus looks out of the window. The Hogwarts Express is just starting, and we can see the scenery move past at snail's pace. "Both my parents were, and James is, too."

"Just because loads of your family's in one house doesn't always mean you'll end up there." I argue. Albus has been nervous about what house he'd be in for as long as I could remember.

"Like you can talk," He shoots back quickly. "When's the last time there was a non-Gryffindor Weasley?"

I have to think for a moment—not because there aren't any. It was simply that there were so many Weasleys that it was difficult to keep track of who was who. "Molly's a Ravenclaw, and Dominique's in Hufflepuff."

Albus is clearly frustrated that I've given a serious answer. "You remember what our parents said. The Sorting Hat _knows_ if you're a Weasley. It put your dad and my mum there straight away, didn't even take the time to figure out-"

Whatever nervous rant Albus was working towards is interrupted by the compartment door opening. We both expected somebody to end up in our compartment—the express is supposedly full every year—but I still feel my heart give a little jump when people come in.

"Can we sit here?" A pretty girl with long brown hair asks. She looks like a teenager already. "We had a compartment, but some third years kicked us out."

"Go ahead," Albus says, scooting towards the window to make space. I thought that was unnecessary, but he's right. The girl isn't just with one or two other kids; soon, the compartment is packed to bursting.

"Are you two first years?" The same girl asks. Everybody other than her is clearly uncomfortable, including me, but she doesn't seem to notice or care in the slightest. I immediately like her.

"Yeah, we are." I answer, seeing as Albus looks a bit tongue-tied. He always got a bit pink around girls, and in this case, I can't blame him—whatsherface is bloody gorgeous. "I'm Rose, and this is my Cousin Al."

Albus shoots me an odd look. Nobody in our family calls him Al; Uncle Harry named him after this old headmaster who was apparently a big deal to him and my parents, and always called him by his full name. I have no idea why I called him Al, so I just shrug. It's less dorky, anyways.

"Well, Rose, Al, I'm Lizzy. We're all first years, too. This is Scorpius, Amelia, Hanako, and Daniel."

Immediately, there are protests from the other kids, who had up until this point been entirely silent.

"Nobody calls me Hanako, it's just Hana-"

"I'm Amy, not Amelia,"

"Merlin, Lizzy, you know I go by Danny!"

The only one who's still silent is the Scorpius bloke. His face is pretty neutral, but he's smiling now—that's a bit of a relief. Something about him is just a little familiar, but I'm not sure why that is. And I don't like that he isn't talking at all, like he's too good for the rest of the world.

"So _that's_ what gets you all to talk," Lizzy smiles, tucking a dark strand of hair behind her ear. "Was wondering if it was going to be just me this whole ride."

"You didn't get me to talk," Scorpius finally says something, one eyebrow raised. I've never been able to do that. Whenever I try, James tells me I look like I'm completely insane.

"Well, you're the stick in the mud without a nickname, Scorp." She laughs, rolling her eyes.

"Don't call me Scorp," He huffs. "That just sounds stupid."

"Oh, yeah, because _Scorpius_ is _loads_ better." Lizzy shrugs. "By the way, I did get you to talk, technically."

This clearly takes a second to register with him. After a moment, Scorpius shrugs as well. "Got me there."

The five laugh, and I lock eyes with Albus. It's a bit awkward. Maybe they didn't mean to, but they've sort of locked us out of the conversation. We sit there like that for a while.

"We're being rude, guys," Amy says a while later, looking towards us, laughter from a moment's joke still on her face. "We barged into their compartment, and now we're ignoring them."

She's just as pretty as Lizzy. When I was little—around nine years old, which is loads younger than eleven, no matter what you think—I wanted hair just like hers, shoulder length blonde stuff that looks like gold. The one time I tried it short, it puffed up like an afro.

"Nah, we're fine," Albus says.

"Oh, no, don't be silly. Amy's right."

An uncomfortable silence falls over us straight away. I figured this would happen, which is why I didn't say anything about it—I'd much prefer they ignored us to spending the entire train ride in quiet. Danny, a bloke with dark skin, scratches his head.

"So, er…what house do you guys want?"

Albus and I just had this conversation, but I don't mind. It's a really common topic for first years to talk about; after all, your house is pretty much everything. Who you spend all of your time around, how much you can get away with, what everybody thinks of you. If my mum had been in Ravenclaw—which she said she almost was—she probably wouldn't have even _met_ my dad, and then where would I be? Nowhere! I wouldn't even have been born!

But I didn't know what house I wanted, not really. If I ended up in Ravenclaw, everybody would expect me to be a genius, and I'm definitely not. In Gryffindor, everybody'll want me to go on adventures like my parents and their friends did. No offense to Dominique and Louis, but I'd be kind of embarrassed to be in Hufflepuff. And Slytherin…well, my dad doesn't speak too kindly of them. Thinks they're all evil and up to no good. Mum smacks him right up the head whenever he says that and starts rambling about how it isn't the house that makes the person, but for once, I'm not sure she's right. Either way, nobody in the Weasley-Potter clan has ever been a Slytherin, so I don't think I should really worry. I'm not much for cunning, anyways. Albus is more along those lines than me; I would drag him into everything when we were little, and he came up with the excuses to get us out.

Not that Albus is a Slytherin. Merlin knows, he's much too sweet and quiet for that.

"I don't really know what house I want," I admit. "Probably Ravenclaw, or Gryffindor."

"My whole family's been in Slytherin, so that's probably where I'll go," Lizzy nods, tucking that same strand behind her ear again. It's shorter than the rest of her hair, like she used to have bangs, but grew them out.

"Same with me," Scorpius leans back in his seat. He looks too calm about the whole thing, like it never even occurred to him that he should worry.

"Scorpius, _all_ of our families are Slytherin. We're all going to end up there." Hana smirks. Albus looks at me wide eyed, and I stare back for a second. Of course we'd end up in a compartment full of sure-fire Slytherins on the first day-though I couldn't help but be jealous of how sure they were of their house.

"You'd probably be there either way," Danny adds. "You're ambitious as all get-out. Being a Malfoy is just bonus for you."

I bolt upright. _Malfoy?_ "You're that spider bloke!"

"'Scuse me?" He asks, sitting right back up and raising his eyebrow again. If I had the slightest bit of common sense, I would've shut my mouth.

"Dad pointed you out on the platform and told me to beat you in every test!"

Apparently, I _don't_ have any common sense. I don't even have the part of a persons' brain that tells you not to say obviously stupid stuff, or call the boy you've known for barely an hour 'that spider bloke' and that you've been told to beat him in every test. Immediately after I shut my mouth, I turn bright red; I can tell from how hot my face starts to feel. Everybody starts to laugh.

"That's bloody brilliant, Rose! Who's your dad, I want to shake that man's hand!" Danny manages through his laughter. I don't answer, and aside from his remaining wheezes, the cabin falls silent again.

"You two are Weasleys, aren't you?" Amy asks, pushing up her silver-wire glasses. She'd been rather quiet for most of the ride so far, but her tone wasn't hostile, just curious.

"I'm technically a Potter, but my mum's a Weasley, so I guess you could say that." Albus shrugs. He's acting pretty nonchalant about it, but I have a feeling that he doesn't love having to tell them so soon. Uncle Harry's kind of a big deal in the wizarding world—saved us from this Voldemort guy a couple decades ago—and apparently James has warned Albus that everybody throws a fit because they're Potters.

" _He said the teachers grade us harder, and, and that we have to make a patronus on the first day of Defense Against the Dark Arts!"_ He'd confessed once. I didn't trust James for a second, but Albus was so nervous he'd clearly believe anything.

"Yeah, I'm a Weasley."

"Geez, so you've basically got your whole family here already, don't you?" Hana does a weird smile-grimace. "I'm not sure if that's a blessing or a curse."

"A curse, I'd say," I tuck a curl behind my ear—it springs right back into place, of course, and I try my best not to look annoyed.

"Our cousins are mental." Albus adds.

"You two seem alright, though." Scorpius says casually. "My dad always told me that the Potters and Weasleys are trouble."

"We aren't trouble!" I object. Albus gives me an amused look, and I scowl at him. "Well, maybe a little. But not as much as our parents were, promise."

The five of them trade a few looks, and though I feel a little resentment, it reminds me of the look Albus gave me a minute ago.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to find out." Lizzy says, very matter-of-fact. "You guys didn't freak out when you found out that we're all sure to be in Slytherin-which I've heard plenty that your family doesn't love-so I'm sure none of us think it's that big a deal."

She gives the other four an authoritative look, but none of them looked particularly malicious.

"I've got something to say to Rose," Scorpius says.

"Yeah?" I ask, biting my lip, ready to be insulted or hexed or something worse. He keeps a straight face, staring directly at me. I do my best to stare back; his eyes are really serious, and I can't tell if they're grey or blue.

"There's no way in Azkaban you're gonna beat me in every test."

On one hand, he's probably right. On the other hand, who does this guy think he is, saying that all outright like that? That's—that's beyond just confidence. That's just being an downright arsehole! I feel my face heating right back up, and I don't know if it's from anger or embarrassment, but I have half a mind to smack him, inter-house unity be damned. If everybody wasn't laughing, I might've. Instead, I join in until it dies down.

"Anyways, what subjects are you looking forward to?" Albus says casually once it dies down, scratching at his messy hair and smiling. "I think Potions is going to be pretty cool."

 **Things I don't have time for: this**

 **Things I'm doing: this**

 **I don't know, this probably won't get updated very frequently, if any of my other stories are indicators. A lot of times I run dry with this sort of stuff, but I figured why not? It's been fun to write so far. I've never dared to delve into the massive and, quite frankly, intimidating world of HP on my own-I've been perfectly content with just reading it up until now. Despite my fear and general laziness, though, I'm getting pretty sick of the houses following stereotypes, even in Next Generation works. As a proud Slytherin, I can say that it's boring. So a lot of this fic is going to involve house boundaries, but not in the usual way. I just hope it works out the way I've planned, and that you all like it. The next chapter's going to be up pretty soon, but I don't know after that. Hope you enjoyed!**


	2. Chapter 2

After the initial awkwardness (not to mention some arrogance on a certain arachnid's part), we all got along surprisingly well. From what I saw, they were a really cool group, and we stuck together all the way up to the castle.

Now, we're in the stairway to the Great Hall, waiting to be sorted. The way I felt on the train was nothing compared to the heart-racing, lip-biting, palm-sweating-ness that I feel now. What if I don't get the right house? What even is the right house? I'm not smart enough for Ravenclaw, not brave enough for Gryffindor, not anything enough for anything! They probably won't even have a house for me. They'll put the Sorting Hat straight on my head and it'll leap right back off, hollering to the whole school and my whole family and my new friends that I don't get a house, that I needed to get my bags and go home immediately, no Hogwarts for Rose.

Albus grabs my hand. I jump, but it's relieving that his palm is as slippery as mine. "Rose…what if this goes horribly wrong?"

I take a deep breath and look at my cousin. The nervous look in his green eyes is nothing unfamiliar to me, and I feel a strange protectiveness over him. It makes sense, though, seeing as he's younger than me by two months.

"You'll be fine, Albus. The Sorting Hat is never wrong." I try to make my voice steady for his sake. His eyes are wide as ever, but he nods quickly, swallowing loudly.

"Now, I would ask you all to be quiet while the sorting is in progress," Professor McGonagall says shortly, in a way that makes me feel like she isn't asking us at all. "You'll be standing here until your name is called—alphabetically-and it will be absolutely _silent_ for every student that wears the Hat. Am I understood?"

She's just as intimidating as my parents said she was. Her face's very stern, and from her face I can't tell if she's fifty or a hundred and ninety nine—her question is met with a lot of nervous mumbles, along with a squeak from me.

I knew this part was going to be hell. My name isn't exactly very high up in the alphabet—why'd my parents have to go and have a name like Weasley?—and I'll have to wait ages before it's my turn. That's just going to make my nerves worse.

We find each other, Lizzy, Danny, Hana, Amy, Scorpius, Albus and I, and cluster together, not really saying anything. Instead, we just listen breathlessly as the names are all called. Luckily—or unluckily-we're all low in the alphabet. At least we have time to steel our nerves together.

Scorpius's name is first—Malfoy. He goes out, and I can't help but notice that he doesn't look the slightest bit nervous. I wish I could be that confident. The arrogance, I could probably do without, but still.

"I'm next, then," Lizzy says, threading her hair behind her ear furiously. Her last name is Nott.

I do the math, finally taking the time to figure out the order of our sorting. Malfoy, Nott, Parkinson…Potter. Squeezing Albus' hand, I whisper, "You're fourth out of us."

He nods as we hear the Sorting Hat call out, "SLYTHERIN!", and the hall cheers.

"Did you know that, apparently, in the olden days, people would boo whenever a Slytherin was sorted?" Danny says, smiling almost well enough to hide his anxiousness. "My dad said he was booed when he was a first year."

"That's awful!" I say, and I genuinely mean it. On the train ride, we'd all figured out that our parents were in the same year at Hogwarts as kids—they'd all been seventh years during the Battle of Hogwarts. For a second, I wondered if my aunts and uncles, or even my parents, had ever booed at new kids.

"Nott, Elizabeth," McGonagall calls out, and she flounces off, looking just as cool as Scorpius had. It's only a minute or two this time before we hear the Hat's decision. Slytherin, of course.

"It must be nice, to already know what your house is." I admit quietly, not sure if I want anybody to hear.

"It'd be nice to know at all, at this point," Albus sighs.

"Oi, you don't get to complain!" I interrupt. "I'm a Weasley, I'm good as last in the sorting!"

"Seeing as my name's Zabini, you can't really complain either, Rose." Danny laughs. We join him, and for a relieving moment, I don't think about being scared.

"I wish my mum had taken my dad's last name," Amy rolls her eyes. She's next out of all of us, but it's taking forever for some kid called Charitha Ohri to be sorted. "Baddock is _so_ much earlier in the alphabet than Parkinson."

"Give it a minute. You're right after this one, I bet."

She was, and went very quickly out of the waiting hall, pushing her glasses up her nose as she walked.

"Danny?" Hana asks suddenly. She hasn't said anything the entire time we've been waiting here, which was definitely a change from how much she talked on the train. Her face is very pale, and she's so expressionless she almost looks like a doll. I take another moment to notice that these Slytherin girls are all bloody gorgeous. Maybe purebloods aren't as inbred as Dad always calls them.

"Yeah?" His expression is serious for the first time since he walked into the compartment behind Lizzy this morning.

"What if I don't end up in Slytherin?" Her voice is so quiet I can barely hear it, especially with all of the chatter from the other first years around us, but Danny seems to hear her just fine.

"C'mon, Hana. Our whole families have been Slytherin. You know the odds are, we'll be, too."

"But that's all they are. Odds."

Albus squeezes my hand tighter at this, and I squeeze back.

Danny stops for a moment, clearly in thought. "Fair enough."

"RAVENCLAW!" We all hear the Hat call out. Everybody whips their heads towards the door. Did they just say Ravenclaw? No, they couldn't possibly have. Her whole family's been Slytherin! She was so sure that she would be Slytherin!

"B-but…she was supposed to be Slytherin." Hana says, her voice finally getting loud as it was before. "We were _all_ supposed to be Slytherin. That's always been the plan, since we were little kids, they can't just-"

"Potter, Albus." Professor McGonagall calls out. Can't she see we're having a crisis here?

Albus has a death grip on my hand; I can't blame him. "Rose, what if I-"

"You'll be fine, Albus." I insist.

"But what if-"

"You'll be fine," I say firmly. "I promise. Go on, go get sorted."

I have to push him, but he gets moving before McGonagall calls his name a second time. Watching him leave, he glances back at me a few times, and I try to smile through my worry.

"This isn't right." Hana says, and for some reason, it seems that confirming her worst fear has drained the fear right out of her. She looks more angry than scared now. Her glare is so intense, it makes me want to wither away.

"It was just a coincidence, I'm sure." I say absently. I can't stop thinking about my cousin, alone on that stage, wearing a burnt, beaten old hat and surely trying not to panic. He'll be alright, right?

"Yeah. Yeah, Rose is probably right." Danny looks more shaken than Hana did a moment ago.

Why is it taking so long?

"Come to think of it," Hana sighs, tugging on a lock of her black hair. "Amy always did have her nose in a book, or something like that."

It doesn't usually take this long to sort somebody, does it?

"You're right."

The pair locks eyes, and some relief passes through their faces.

"SLYTHERIN!"

I've gone into shock a couple times in my life. One time, when I was seven, my cousin Fred knocked me off my broom and I fell flat on my back. All the wind got knocked out of me. My vision was really blurry and dark around the edges, and I heard ringing in my ears. Another time, I walked in on my parents snogging. _That_ was a truly traumatic experience.

Either way, nothing compared to how I feel right now. I can't even think. Well, yeah, I can think, but I can't, y'know, _think_ think. How could it be possible that Albus is a Slytherin? He's not at all a Slytherin! He's nice and friendly and shy and…Merlin's beard, this is going completely pear shaped!

"Change of plans. I don't want to be sorted anymore. Are there any stations back to King's Cross?" Danny jokes, but I process somewhere in the back of my mind that he sounds afraid, despite the fact that I feel like I'm underwater. I want to say something about Albus, but I'm talking to two soon-to-be Slytherins. Or am I? I don't know anything anymore.

"You okay, Rose?" Hana asks, and I do my best to snap out of the shock. It doesn't work very well.

"I just…I can't believe it."

"Hey, look on the bright side," She smiles in an almost convincing way. "He's got Scorpius and Lizzy to sit with."

"He had our whole _family_ to sit with in Gryffindor," I say, not able to appreciate any bright side right now. "Merlin, how are they gonna react to this? There's never been a Slytherin Potter. Or a Slytherin Weasley, for that matter. He's both."

"Amy's family is all Slytherin," Danny pointed out.

"This has all gone to hell, then, hasn't it?" I ask. I don't mean for my voice to sound so mean, but give me a break! Slytherins are evil and mean and brutish—no offense to Lizzy and Scorpius—and Albus Severus Potter is not, can not be, and never will be one! It's not in his genes!

That reminds me, I should get mum to send me more of her Muggle books. That science stuff is pretty intere—what am I going on about? Albus is in the wrong house, and I can't do anything about it!

"Tsuji, Hanako." McGonagall calls out, kind of interrupting my own interruption. Hana rolls her eyes and smiles at me.

"They always pronounce my name wrong."

I manage a weak laugh, and as she walks through the massive stone doors to the Great Hall, I wonder if she's worried for herself. I wonder how Albus feels, sitting at the wrong table with only two people he's barely met to talk to, his family metres away. I wonder how Danny feels watching everything go wrong, now with only an unfamiliar girl for comfort.

"She'll be alright." I say after Hana's out of sight, pushing a red curl from out of my face.

"We're all alright," He replies. I notice that his hair is curly, too, but denser than mine; more like mowed grass than my outright explosion. "I mean, what do houses really matter? It's just…personality. Nothing else. It's not like being in a house you didn't expect will change you too much."

"I've never thought of it like that." I frown.

"You belong in…GRYFFINDOR!"

I scan his face for a reaction, but his expression doesn't waver. "So then, you think she's alright right now?"

"Not right now," Danny shakes his head. "She will be, eventually."

He's sounds so sure of this that I feel a little bit better. Not much, but hey, I'll take what I can get right now.

"I'm _so_ going to tease her for landing herself in Gryffindor, though." He grins, and our laughter rings out among the dwindling kids around us.

"Weasley, Rose."

Wait. Me, already? I could've sworn there was more space between T and W in the alphabet! I'm not ready to be sorted! After all that's been going wrong, how can I possibly—

"Rose, _go_ ," Danny says, pushing me like I'd pushed Albus a little bit before.

I start walking, putting one foot in front of the other, trying to remind myself to breathe. I'll be fine, I'll be fine, I'll be fine. The door comes up too quickly, and suddenly I'm in front of hundreds of students, all staring at me. My face heats up and I rush forward to the stool, eager to just get this over with. Maybe it'll be like ripping off a bandage. Maybe it's nothing but buildup.

 _Another Weasley? I've seen so many in the past century, I've lost count._

I jump when I hear the voice. It's echoing around in my head, and I get the feeling that I'm the only one hearing it.

 _Nervous, aren't we?_

Can it hear my thoughts?

 _Very observant. If it weren't for the rest of that head of yours, I would rule out Ravenclaw._

My brain flashes to Amy, and then to Albus. I look out to the crowd, and see him sitting there, his face almost as green as his eyes. He's sitting with Lizzy and Scorpius, but he looks scared.

'Can…can you put me in Slytherin, please?' I try.

 _Interesting_. _I've never heard that from a Weasley before._

'Listen, I don't care what you hear from Weasleys. I…I want to be in Slytherin.'

 _I just put your cousin there a moment ago…oh, I see. Very loyal, very loyal indeed. But incredibly brave as well, to ask…_

"GRYFFINDOR!"

I don't know what I'm thinking as the hat is lifted from my head, as I walk to the Gryffindor table, as my cousins all smile and cheer. This is what I'd imagined since I was little, but everything else is so _wrong_.

"Had us worried for a moment there, Rosie," James says through a mouthful of mashed potatoes. "What, with Albus going and getting himself placed in Slytherin and all."

Fred scrunches his face up and grins at the same time, and I can't help but giggle. "That'll be fun to explain to Harry and Ginny."

"He is named for a Slytherin, so I don't think it'd be fair for Harry to be too upset." Victoire says, smiling down at me. "Welcome to Gryffindor, love."

The table is full of familiar faces—it seems that I'm related to half the house—but I notice one in particular, sitting a bit away.

"Hana!" I call out. She was sitting alone, not eating much and looking too mopey for my tastes. When she hears my voice, Hana turns to me and smiles, and I motion for her to come over.

"How're you doing?" I ask quietly.

"I'm...fine," Hana blushes at the gazes of my cousins. "My parents are going to lose it when they find out, though."

I feel a bit guilty ending up in the house I wanted, with everybody everywhere. The hat didn't listen to me at all! What was that all about? "Guys, this is my friend Hana. Albus and I met her on the train."

Victoire's expression changes, slowly, but very obviously. "Wasn't your last name Tsuji?"

"Yeah." Hana stabs at her plate, but meets her eyes; I don't think I would have been able to.

"I know your brother, I think," She wrinkles her nose. "Riku?"

Hana nods.

"Hey, isn't he a Slytherin?" James perks up, looking at Hana. She nods again, looking as uncomfortable as she had earlier, and suddenly I feel really defensive of her. I know what they're getting at, and it's unfair—why are they being all hostile to her for having Slytherin family?

"Isn't it great?" I interrupt. "We met her and some other kids on the train. Some of them are in Slytherin, so Albus has people to sit with."

They all stare at me, including Hana. I feel my cheeks redden and start to regret saying anything.

"Yeah. Yeah, that's fantastic," Louis says. His grin, though a tad unconvincing, makes me feel a little bit better. When nobody else responds, he elbows Fred, who's fixated on his chicken like it's his one true love.

"Right, right," Fred finally looks up, wiping his mouth.

"Gross, Freddie." Victoire giggles. I can tell that she's made the decision to move on, at least for now—she's always been fickle. "What, is Uncle George not feeding you?"

Turning to glare at James, Fred rolls his eyes. "My dearest cousin here decided to switch my trolley sweets with Puking Pastilles, so excuse me if I'm on a rather empty stomach at the moment."

Hana lets out a laugh, and everybody turns to look at her; I expect her to shy away again, but instead she laughs more. "Could you not tell the difference?"

"He took off the wrappers!" He complains, and do I detect a little blush on his cheeks? It's hard to tell with his freckles. Hana nods appreciatively.

"That's decent, as far as pranks go, I guess. Can't expect too much from a Gry-" She stops herself, blushing and shoving a spoonful of peas into her mouth.

"Oh, from a Gryffindor, huh?" James laughs, grinning. "Hate to break it to you, you're one of us now! You'll have to make do with the pranksters you've got."

"And, for the record," Fred throws an arms around him, and instead of shoving it off, James laughs harder. "We're the best pranksters in all of Hogwarts, so what you've got is pretty great!"

I roll my eyes. Victoire smiles at us, rolling her eyes, too. "They're idiots."

I turn to see if Hana's gotten rid of her mopey expression, but her eyes are locked on the front of the room. Following her gaze, I see Danny sat on the bench. The hat hovers above his head for a split second before it falls.

"You okay?" I ask her. She swallows and nods, not taking her eyes from him and the hat. Is this how nervous I looked when Albus was sorted? I hope not, because I'm getting nervous just looking at Hana.

"That a friend of yours?" Louis asks, giving Danny a glance. Hana nods again. "He'll be alright, don't worry. Sorting Hat's never wrong."

Hana won't notice it in his smile—especially since she isn't looking at him—but something about his whole expression is off. Albus in Slytherin clearly isn't just weird for me. What if it's a wonky year, and everybody's going to the wrong houses? It'd make sense; I'm not nearly good enough for Gryffindor. But then, Scorpius and Lizzy ended up where they wanted to. They knew they'd be there.

I shake my head, hoping to derail that train of thought.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Hana's eyes widen, and though it's not exactly a jaw drop, her mouth falls open. Danny doesn't look shaken up at all as he walks towards us, and I scoot closer to Victoire so he can sit with Hana.

"So, Gryffindor," He says, starting to fill his plate. I wonder how he's being so calm. "'Sit fun here?"

"It's fantastic," James smiles, pulling out a pale yellow candy from somewhere in his robes. "Sweet?"

I want to warn him, but for some reason I think that would just end in James determined to prank him in a bigger, better way. I look at Hana to see if she's going to warn him, but I can tell from the smile on her face that it's not likely. All of the colour in her cheeks seemed to have returned the second Danny sat down.

"Why doesn't it have a wrapper?" Danny's voice is full of suspicion. I'm proud, but I want him to just take the pastille. I'd prefer to get through my first year with as little bloodshed as possible.

"I was just about to eat it when our carriage pulled up to Hogwarts, right, Fred?"

Fred nods eagerly in confirmation.

"But, since you're here, I figure'd I'd be nice and offer it to you." James shrugs, flicking his dark brown hair out of his eyes.

"I'll pass, thanks." Danny smiles, buttering a roll. "I'm not a particular fan of Puking Pastilles."

We all bust out laughing, even James—that is, after the slight bruise on his ego fades. Fred leans forward across the table, hand out, and Danny shakes it with a smile.

"You Slytherin kids seem alright, I guess," James says.

"They aren't _Slytherin_ , clearly. They come from Slytherin families, is all," Louis reasons, that uncertain grin still ghosting his face.

I cock my head. "How'd you guys know Danny's from a Slytherin family?"

"Zabini's a hard name to forget. Dad's mentioned him from when he was in the Slug Club."

"The hell is Slug Club?" Hana asks, giggling and sharing a look with Danny. They almost remind me of Fred and James—without each other, it's like they're almost entirely different, something manic in their eyes flickering away.

"Some elitest club the old Potions professor held. He was still around when I was a little firstie, though Merlin knows he was all the way off his rocker by then." Victoire rolls her eyes, then leans in and focuses on me and Hana. Professor Bexley is loads better. Pretty cute, too."

She takes the pause of groans from Fred, James, and Louis to point out a man with sandy blond hair sitting at the front of the room with the other professors. He's just to the right of Neville—I mean, Professor Longbottom—and he's talking with an odd looking blue-haired woman.

"He's, like, fifty!" Hana makes a face. James laughs, and briefly leans in to our little circle.

"Well, if you didn't know, Victoire _totally_ has a thing for older guys." He leans back out and accepts the laughter from Fred and Louis.

"He's only thirty-five." Victoire turns to glare at the trio. "And Teddy is only _nineteen_ , thank you very much!"

"Whatever, Vicky!"

"Don't call me that! And anyways, Bexley's over the _moon_ for Professor Sterren." She continues, and then looks at us like she expects us to get the joke. I trade a look with Hana, but she looks just as confused as me, and Victoire sighs. "First years. Not your fault, I guess, not knowing anything. Sterren's the blue headed chick next to Bexely. Teaches Astronomy and Divination, absolutely mad. You'll see pretty soon."

I don't know what to say to this. There's a beat of silence, and then, thank Merlin, McGonagall chooses this moment to stand.

"Welcome, both returning students and those new to Hogwarts alike. It's a lovely bunch of students this year, and if everybody obeys the rules, I'm sure it will be a lovely year as well. As always the Forbidden Forest is _forbidden_ —this includes any dares, jokes, or pranks you may feel the urge to carry out—and let's please refrain from any more unauthorised broom rides after curfew." James and Fred slap hands. "I remember the speeches of our last headmaster, Albus Dumbledore-" I turn to smirk at Albus for a second before I remember that he's all the way over at the Slytherin table. "—from a very long time ago, and I remember that he would always give some sort of sage wisdom during welcome back speech. In his memory, my parting words are nitwit, blubber, oddment, and tweak. Thank you very much!"

She keeps a straight face while saying all of that, and nods curtly as she sits down.

"That speech gets better every year," Victoire grins.


End file.
